Printing electronic documents stored on network servers is a common task, especially in work environments. In current systems, a user typically initiates a print request from a work computer. The print request identifies the electronic document and the connected printer. In response, the work computer generates a printable representation of the electronic document and displays a print preview. The user can modify print configuration settings and view a new print preview of the electronic document. The user can then launch the print job to the printer. The work computer forwards the printable representation of the electronic document through the network to the printer, which prints the printable representation. The user then goes to the printer to obtain the hardcopy of the printable representation.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/363,336, filed Jan. 31, 2012 and entitled “Printing an Electronic Document Using a Printer and a Mobile Device,” discloses a method for printing an electronic document using a printer and a mobile device. The printer receives a request to print. The printer generates a unique identifier in response to the request. The mobile device sends a print job associated with the unique identifier and the electronic document to a print server over a network. The printer sends the unique identifier to the print server. The printer receives the print job from the print server in response to sending the unique identifier, and prints a hardcopy of the electronic document based on the print job.
Systems and methods that are capable of more efficiently printing a network document would be helpful.